by Brian Godawa
Praise for Brian Godawa’s novel Noah Primeval
“I’ve read the entire Harry Potter series three times, a bunch of Star Wars novels, Lord of the Rings and Narnia. I read a ton. And I LOVE Chronicles of the Nephilim!”
– Sam Jenkins, Junior high school, son of filmmaker Dallas Jenkins
This is the origin of sorcery and vampire tales. Noah Primeval will keep you on the edge of your seat with its primal struggle of good and evil. Supernatural fiction, fantasy, and Biblical speculation all as a cinematic novel. It reads like a blockbuster movie!”
– Ralph Winter, Producer (X-Men, Planet of the Apes)
“A great, spiritual fantasy full of thought and imagination. Noah Primeval is a provocative look at what could have been the life and times of Noah. The cinema-like action and suspense will keep you turning pages until you are finished, while the themes and concepts will remain long after you’re done.”
– Bill Myers - Bestselling Author, The God Hater
“Anyone who has read the Lord of the Rings trilogy has silently mused about how fantastic it would be if it were all real—a place on earth that transcended our own mundane reality, a time when the unseen world was tangible. Noah Primeval made me stop wishing and start believing. Brian Godawa re-imagines the supernatural storyline of the Biblical Noah blended with Mesopotamian epics. The result is a stirring tale of gods and men that confronts us with biblical reality through mythical fantasy. Noah Primeval is what Tolkien called “sanctifying myth” that we need in our own place and time.”
– Michael S. Heiser, Ph.D. Hebrew and Semitic Languages
Academic Editor, Logos Bible Software
“Imaginative yet well-researched. As Biblical scholar, I have a great appreciation for imagination in religious storytelling of the past. I was enthralled with Godawa’s grasp of the Mesopotamian world and enchanted with his modern adaptation of antiquity into an entertaining action fantasy. Such a fictional adaptation may be a big problem from some religious believers with strict views of the Bible, but in my book, Godawa brings to the surface the drama of the original story. He gives to us the Noah of the Bible in a fresh and provocative way.”
– Peter Enns, PhD. Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
Author Inspiration and Incarnation
“When it comes to supernatural fiction, all the publishing industry seems to think about these days are vampires. Then, fortunately for us, along comes Brian Godawa to shake things up and remind us all where good and evil really come from. Noah Primeval is the kind of story that will make you think, and allow you to see the world in a different way.” “Brian Godawa's imagination is incredible. When he writes, he conjures up worlds that make you re-think what’s possible. Noah Primeval is a fascinating new take on an ancient story that makes the word ‘epic’ seem far too small. Pick up the book, but don't expect to put it down until you're finished.”
– Phil Cooke, filmmaker, media consultant,
author, Jolt! Get the Jump on a World that's Constantly Changing
“Noah Primeval represents the new generation in novel writing. It’s compact, concise, and fast paced. Intelligent yet entertaining. Godawa brings a screenwriter’s sensibilities to the material that will draw in a postmodern audience that prefers books that read like movies.”
– Jack Hafer, Chair, Cinema and Media Arts, Biola University;
Producer, To End All Wars
“Here is a disturbingly powerful novel that “sings the Lord’s song in a strange land” at the same time it sings a strange song in the Lord’s land. Godawa captures the spiritual and theological truth behind the biblical story of Noah with an action packed fantasy adventure that reminded me of C. S. Lewis’ Narnia, or the graphic novel Watchmen. If you are religious or not, believe the Bible or not, know the story of Noah or not, but you have an imagination, you will love this novel.”
– Leonard Sweet, bestselling author, professor (Drew University,
George Fox University), and chief contributor to sermons.com
Other books by the Author
Hollywood Worldviews: Watching Films with Wisdom
and Discernment (Intervarsity Press)
Word Pictures: Knowing God Through Story and Imagination (Intervarsity Press)
Myth Became Fact: Storytelling, Imagination
& Apologetics in the Bible
Chronicles of the Nephilim
Noah Primeval
Enoch Primordial
Gilgamesh Immortal
Abraham Allegiant
Joshua Valiant
Caleb Vigilant
David Ascendant
Jesus Triumphant
When Giants Were Upon the Earth:
The Watchers, Nephilim, & the Biblical Cosmic War of the Seed
For more information and products by the author,
see the back pages of this book or go to:
www.godawa.com
www.NoahPrimeval.com
Noah Primeval
Chronicles of the Nephilim
Book One
By Brian Godawa
NOAH PRIMEVAL
4th Edition
Copyright © 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 Brian Godawa
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews.
Embedded Pictures Publishing
Los Angeles, CA
310.948.0224
[email protected]
www.embeddedpictures.com
ISBN: 978-0-615-55078-7 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-0-615-56567-5 (ebook)
Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001.
Dedicated to
my Emzara,
my Muse,
my Kimberly.
Song 2:1-2
and to
Michael S. Heiser,
whose scholarship has opened my eyes
like Elisha’s servant.
2 Kings 6:1
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Special thanks always goes to my wonderful wife Kimberly, without whose support, I would not be writing much of anything, including this novel. Another special thanks to Neil Uchitel for all our rambling discussions all those years ago about fallen angels, vampires and the Nephilim. Thanks to my editor, Don Enevoldsen for his friendship and fellowship in the passionate and weary struggle of the life of writing. And to John Kleinpeter for his excellent proofreading. And to Sarah Beach for her excellent editing of this fourth edition, that made it so much better. Most importantly, I thank Yahweh Elohim, my Creator, for his inspiration of imagination within his poetry, stories, and creation.
Inspired By True Events.
Preface
The story you are about to read is the result of Biblical and historical research about Noah’s flood and the ancient Near Eastern (ANE) context of the book of Genesis. While I engage in significant creative license and speculation, all of it is rooted in an affirmation of what I believe is the theological and spiritual intent of the Bible. For those who are leery of such a “novel” approach, let them consider that the traditional Sunday school image of Noah as a little old white-bearded farmer building the ark alone with his sons is itself a speculative cultural bias. The Bible actually says very little about Noah. We don’t know what he did for a living before the Flood or even where he lived. How do we know whether he was just a simple farmer or a tribal warrior? Genesis 9:2 says Noah “began to be a man of the soil” after the Flood, not before
it. If the world before the flood was full of wickedness and violence, then would not a righteous man fight such wickedness as Joshua or David would? Noah would not have been that different from Abraham, who farmed, did business and led his family and servants in war against kings.
We know very little about primeval history, but we do learn from archeological evidence that humanity was clearly tribal during the early ages when this story takes place. Yet, nothing is written about Noah’s tribe in the Bible. It would be modern individualistic prejudice to assume that Noah was a loner when everyone in that Biblical context was communal. Noah surely had a tribe.
There is really no agreement as to the actual time and location of the event of the Flood. Some say it was global, some say it was in upper Mesopotamia, some say lower Mesopotamia, some say the Black Sea, some say the earth was so changed by the flood that we would not know where it happened. Since Genesis has some references that seem to match Early Bronze Age Mesopotamian contexts I have gone with that basic interpretation.
The Bible also says Noah built the ark. Are we to believe that Noah built it all by himself? It doesn’t say. With his sons’ help? It doesn’t say. But that very same book does say earlier that Cain “built a city” (some scholars believe it was Cain’s son Enoch) Are we to assume that he built an entire city by himself? Ridiculous. Cain or Enoch presided as a leader over the building of a city by a group of people, just as Noah probably did with his ark.
One of the only things Genesis says about Noah’s actual character is that he was “a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God” (Gen. 6:9). The New Testament clarifies this meaning by noting Noah as an “heir” and “herald” of righteousness by faith (Heb. 11:7; 2Pet. 2:5). The popular interpretation of this notion of “righteousness” is to understand Noah as a virtually sinless man too holy for his time, and always communing with God in perfect obedience. But is this really Biblical? Would Noah have never sinned? Never had an argument with God? Never had to repent? As a matter of fact, the term “righteous” in the Old and New Testaments was not a mere description of a person who did good deeds and avoided bad deeds. Righteousness was a Hebrew legal concept that meant, “right standing before God” as in a court of law. It carried the picture of two positions in a lawsuit, one “not in the right,” and the other, “in the right” or “righteous” before God. It was primarily a relational term. Not only that, but in both Testaments, the righteous man is the man who is said to “live by faith,” not by perfect good deeds (Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:17). So righteousness does not mean “moral perfection” but “being in the right with God because of faith.”
What’s more, being a man of faith doesn’t mean a life of perfect consistency either. Look at David, the “man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22), yet he was a murderer and adulterer and more than once avoided obeying God’s will. But that doesn’t stop him from being declared as “doing all God’s will” by the apostle Paul. Or consider Abraham, the father of the Faith, who along with Sarah believed that God would provide them with a son (Heb. 11:8-11). Yet, that Biblically honored faith was not perfect, as they both laughed in derision at God’s promise at first (Gen. 17:17; 18:12). Later, Abraham argued with God over his scorched earth policy at Sodom (Gen. 18). Moses was famous for his testy debates with God (Ex. 4; Num. 14:11-24). King David’s Psalms were sometimes complaints to his Maker (Psa. 13; Psa. 69). The very name Israel means “to struggle with God.”
All the heroes in the Hebrews Hall of Faith (Heb. 11) had sinful moments, lapses of obedience and even periods of running from God’s call or struggling with their Creator. It would not be heresy to suggest that Noah may have had his own journey with God that began in fear and ended in faith. In fact, to say otherwise is to present a life inconsistent with the reality of every human being in history. To say one is a righteous person of faith is to say that the completed picture of his life is one of finishing the race set before him, not of having a perfect run without injuries or failures.
Some scholars have even noted that the phrase “blameless in his generation” is an unusual one, reserved for unblemished sacrifices in the temple. This physical purity takes on new meaning when understood in the genetic context of the verses before it that speak of “Sons of God” or bene ha elohim leaving their proper abode in heaven and violating the separation of angelic and human flesh (Gen. 6:1-4; Jude 5-7). Within church history, there is a venerable tradition of interpreting this strangest of Bible passages as referring to supernatural beings from God’s heavenly host who mate with humans resulting in the giant offspring called Nephilim. Other equally respectable theologians argue that these Sons of God were either humans from the “righteous” bloodline of Seth or a symbolic reference to human kings or judges of some kind. I have weighed in on the supernatural interpretation and have provided appendices at the end of the book that give the Biblical theological foundation for this interpretation.
This novel seeks to remain true to the sparse facts presented in Genesis (with admittedly significant embellishments) interwoven with theological images and metaphors come to life. Where I engage in flights of fancy, such as a journey into Sheol, I seek to use figurative imagery from the Bible, such as “a bed of maggots and worms” (Isa. 14:11) and “the appetite of Sheol” (Isa. 5:14) and bring them to life by literalizing them into the flesh-eating living-dead animated by maggots and worms.
Another player that shows up in the story is Leviathan. While I have provided another appendix explaining the theological motif of Leviathan as a metaphor in the Bible for chaos and disorder, I have embodied the sea dragon in this story for the purpose of incarnating that chaos as well. I have also literalized the Mesopotamian cosmology of a three-tiered universe with a solid vault in the heavens, and a flat disc earth supported on the pillars of the underworld, the realm of the dead. This appears to be the model assumed by the Biblical writers in many locations (Phil. 2:10; Job 22:14; 37:18; Psa. 104:5; 148:4; Isa. 40:22), so I thought it would be fascinating to tell that story within that worldview unknown to most modern westerners. The purpose of the Bible is not to support scientific theories or models of the universe, but to tell the story of God through ancient writers. Those writers were people of their times just as we are.
I have also woven together Sumerian and other Mesopotamian mythology in with the Biblical story, but with this caveat: Like C.S. Lewis, I believe the primary purpose of mythology is to embody the worldview and values of a culture. But all myths carry slivers of the truth and reflect some distorted vision of what really happened. Sumer’s Noah was Ziusudra, Babylon’s Noah was Utnapishtim, and Akkad’s was Atrahasis. The Bible’s Noah is my standard. So my goal was to incorporate real examples of ANE history and myth in subjection to that standard in such a way that we see their “true origin.” Thus my speculation that the gods of the ancient world may have been real beings (namely fallen “Sons of God”) with supernatural powers. The Bible itself makes this suggestion in several places (Deut. 32:17; Psa. 106:34), and it also talks of the Sons of God as “gods” or supernatural beings from God’s divine council (Psa. 82:1; 58:1; Ezek. 28:2). See the appendix at the back for my defense of this interpretation from the Bible.
Lastly, I have permitted myself to use extra—Biblical Jewish literature from the Second Temple period as additional reference material for my story. The most significant is the book of 1 Enoch, a document famous for its detailed amplification of the Genesis 6:1-4 passage about supernatural Sons of God mating with human women and birthing giants, as well as leading humanity astray with occultic knowledge. I use these ancient Jewish sources not because I consider them completely factual or on par with the Bible, but simply in an attempt to incarnate the soul of the ancient Hebrew imagination in conversation with the text of Scripture rather than imposing my own modern western one upon the text. I am within the tradition of the Church on this since authors of the New Testament as well as early Church Fathers and other orthodox theologians in church history respected some
of these ancient manuscripts as well.
Many of these texts from the Second Temple Period, such as Jubilees, Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs or The Life of Adam and Eve, and others found in the Pseudepigrapha, were creative extrapolations of the Biblical text. These were not intended to deceive or overturn the Bible, but rather to retell Biblical stories with theological amplification and creative speculation while remaining true to their interpretation of the Scriptures.
In short, I am not writing Scripture. I am not even saying that I believe this is how the story might have actually happened. I am simply engaging in a time-honored tradition of the ancient Hebrew culture: I am retelling a Biblical story in a new way to underscore the theological truths within it. The Biblical theology that this story is founded upon is provided in several appendixes at the back of the book for those who are interested in going deeper.
The beauty of fiction is that we can make assumptions regarding uncertain theological and historical information without having to prove them one way or another. The story requires only that we establish continuity within the made up world, and accepting those assumptions for the sake of the story does not imply theological agreement. So, sit back and let your imagination explore the contours of this re-imagined journey of one of the most celebrated religious heroes across all times and cultures.
Prologue
Methuselah squinted through half opened eyes. Enoch traveled beside him as they descended onto crystalline blue waves, the eternal sea. Above him, the deep black sky. painted with a pulsating wave of ethereal color. stretched endlessly into the distance. Methuselah knew where they were — in the waters above the heavens. Before him, a lone ancient temple rested upon the waters like an island, crafted from white marble with gold trimming and inlaid with innumerable precious jewels; jasper, sapphire, emerald, onyx, and others. Around this temple hovered a myriad of the Holy Ones, like phantasms of starlight that he could see, but not quite see. He knew what the structure was — the temple of Elohim, and it was terrifyingly wondrous.
